1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a document editing device and method and, in particular, to a touch screen-based document editing device and method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typically, information-processing devices such as personal computers (PC), personal digital assistants (PDA), and mobile telephones, are equipped with a keypad as an input means. By manipulating the keypad, a user may input commands which may include alphabetical and/or numerical characters.
Currently, touch screens are typically used for retail settings, point of sale (POS) systems, automatic teller machines (ATM), and devices in which a stylus is often used to manipulate a graphic user interface (GUI) and for entering data.
Since most functions may be implemented by utilizing keys displayed on a screen, so called ‘soft buttons’, a touch screen substantially reduces the number of necessary mechanical keys of the keypad and enhances user manipulation.
Further, since the touch screen can provide different key sets for different applications and small keys to be selected are simultaneously displayed on the screen, it is possible to reduce the size of the device using a touch screen-based input mechanism. For these reasons, the touch screens are utilized in smart phones, PDAs, portable game consoles, and other various small electrical appliances.
Frequently, the touch screen is implemented with an input mechanism such as a graffito input, a virtual keyboard (for example, soft buttons), and a menu command for inputting letters. In case of graffito-based input mechanism, the alphabetical and/or numerical characters are represented in characterized forms such that a letter or number is input by selecting a corresponding graffito. FIG. 1 is a view illustrating examples of graffiti according to a conventional graffito input mechanism. As shown in FIG. 1, alphabetical and/or numerical characters are presented in graffiti form. With the graffito input mechanism, it is possible to simplify input of alphabetical and numerical characters.
As data communication technologies have advanced and electronic documents are widely utilized, electronic documents are frequently exchanged through a communication network for sharing opinions between individuals. In order to communicate opinions on a subject of an electronic document, it is required to edit the document in communication devices.
However, in the case of a small communication device such as a PDA equipped with a touch screen, which operates with a conventional input mechanism such as the graffito input or menu command mechanism, it is very complicated and uncomfortable for a user to edit a document on such device.